Many golf club training devices have been developed over the years; see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,848,873; 4,148,096; 4,930,787; 5,131,660; 5,161,802; 5,169,151; and 5,184,826. Of these U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,930,787; 5,131,660; 5,161,802; and 5,169,151 are directed to putter training devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,787 teaches a device that produces a signal if the club head is rotated out of parallel with the horizon or the club head undergoes clockwise or counterclockwise rotation on the backstroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,660 discloses and claims a putter having an encoder wheel with a pendulum that rotates in response to the pendulum's rotation and a microprocessor/signal means for calculating the distance a golf ball travels when struck by a given backstroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,802 discloses and claims a golf club, including a putter, having means for generating a light beam parallel to the axis of the shaft in a direction away from the handle. The club produces a visual indication of the path of the ball in response to the manner in which the golfer makes a golf stroke. This enables the golfer to determine the accuracy of the stroke and the squareness of the club head to the target line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,151 discloses and claims an electro-mechanical putting trainer in which an inertial sensor responds to the axial rotation during the backstroke of the putter. If the golfer allows the putter to rotate around the longitudinal axis of the putter's shaft, an alarm will sound.
A few of the putter training devices disclosed in the prior art are directed to correcting the problem of hitting the ball squarely, i.e. the ball must strike the face of the club perpendicular to the path of the club. However, none of the devices of the prior art attempt to correct the problem of "yips" which is common to high handicap, low handicap as well as professional golfers. "Yips" have been defined as:
(1) Accelerating too quickly on the backstroke, during the transition stroke between the backstroke and the forward stroke, or during the forward stroke; and
(2) Decelerating during the transition stroke or during the forward stroke.
There is a need for a putting trainer device which will assist the golfer to strike the ball with the club face perpendicular to the club as well as to impart to the golfer a smooth pendulum swing with the proper tempo and thus avoiding the "yips".